Tuesday, February 12, 2013

A Vol State Love Story

True love is hard to find, but it is possible, even here on the Vol State campus where Grady Eades, Associate Professor of History and Renee Eades, Associate Professor of English fell in love.

Grady said that he and Renee would run across each other during meeting and campus events, but they had not spoken outside of those meetings.

“I wanted to ask her out, but I didn’t know how well she knew me,” said Grady. “She had classes in the Caudill building and I would say hi when we passed but there wasn’t enough there.”

“I thought something because he kept stopping me in the hallway and we didn’t know each other,” said Renee. “My grandfather had passed not to long before that, so I appreciated his kindness and talking to me about that.”

Eades said he asked their mutual friends Dr. Carol Topping and Laura Black “Does she know me?” “Do you think this could work?” When the mutual friends came to Renee and asked her if she was interested. When they mentioned the possibility, she was interested.

“I asked her out for drinks with the idea in mind that if it went very terrible we weren’t committed to the entire evening,” said Grady.

Drinks went so well that the two went out again the next night and dated for two years before tying the knot.

For the proposal Grady sent Renee on a scavenger hunt beginning with a note on the window of her car.

“I was nervous because I thought that I had a ticket or something,” said Renee.

Once she discovered it was a note from Grady she was excited, because the two of them had discussed the possibility of marriage.

The scavenger hunt note sent her to her apartment to find a few things and finally she had a note telling her to go to the place where they had their first date.

“I wanted to make sure that she had a story to tell,” said Grady

The couple has been married for about two and half years, and they are expecting their first baby in July.

Laura Black said the baby should be named after herself and Carol Topping, since they brought the couple together. Grady jokingly said that he was going to name the baby Vol State.

“If it was not for Vol State we would not have crossed paths,” said Grady.